Enveloping Sound Concert Series
William Basinski (US) + André Bratten & Birk Nygaard – Picture Music (NO)
in cooperation with nyMusikk Stavanger
16. MarS@ 21.00 (DØRENE ÅPNER @ 20.00)
William Basinski (US)
William Basinski is a classically trained musician and composer who has been working in experimental media for over 30 years in NYC and most recently, California. Employing obsolete technology and analogue tape loops, his haunting and melancholy soundscapes explore the temporal nature of life and resound with the reverberations of memory and the mystery of time. His epic 4-disc masterwork, The Disintegration Loops received international critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 albums of 2004 by Pitchfork Media. The Temporary Residence deluxe LP box-set reissue from 2012 was awarded best re-issue of the year and a score of 10 on Pitchfork. Installations and films made in collaboration with artist-filmmaker, James Elaine have been presented in festivals and museums internationally, and his concerts are presented to sold out crowds around the world. Basinski was chosen by Music Director, Antony Hegarty to create music for the Robert Wilson opera, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic which had its world premiere at the Manchester International Festival in July 2011 and toured Europe in 2012 and North America in 2013. Orchestral transcriptions of The Disintegration Loops by Maxim Moston have been performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queen Elizabeth Hall and La Batie Festival in Geneva, Switzerland, Dark Mofo Festival in Hobart Tasmania and most recently Pitchfork Midwinter Festival with the Chicago Philharmonic. Basinski is currently touring the world in support of his latest work, “On Time Out of Time” which was released on March 8th, 2019 on Temporary Residence/2062/USA.
André Bratten and Birk Nygaard (NO)
Picture Music
André Bratten Unrestrained by notions of style or genre, there is a distinct air of freedom that permeates Picture Music, the new project from André Bratten.
On what is his fifth album, the electronic visionary didn’t enter the studio with the notion of making a particular type of record. Conversely, it was viewed as an opportunity to simply create – to let the music take over and guide the journey. Bringing together sparse strings, meditative synths, lingering piano chords and fleeting field recordings, the result is a collection of captivating sonic vignettes – deftly assembled into something profound and endearing.
Eschewing the darker, more abrasive elements of most recent LP Silvester, Picture Music features some of Bratten’s most accessible and melodic music to date – a shift in outlook no doubt expedited by the isolation of multiple Covid-19 lockdowns. These minimalist compositions ruminate on how the past two years have forced people to reconsider the concept of “normal life”, as well as the birth of Bratten’s second child – an experience he describes as “like death in reverse”.
The album title is taken from a compilation on the legendary Sky Records, a label that has been an enduring source of inspiration for Bratten along with that of Klaus Schulze’s Innovative Communication. But rather than mimicking the work of these electronic luminaries, Picture Music sees
him forge his own path: one that uncovers beauty in the simplicities of everyday life.
Norwegian electronic artist André Bratten released his debut album Be A Man You Ant on Prins Thomas’ Full Pupp label in 2013. He has since released three albums on Smalltown Supersound, and more recently produced Cracks, the acclaimed project from avant-garde saxophonist Bendik Giske.
Birk Nygaard, a visual artist living in Bergen Norway, working with lights, graphics and visual akkompagnement for music has been working together with Bratten for a while, joining him for different live occasions. For the release of Picture Music Nygaard found the perfect chance for diving in to the fascinating world of AI-generated pictures. Algorithms for generating art through machine learning develop at a rapid rate these days and the visual potential of this technique is enormous. Nygaards project is to study the computers interpretations of different obscure text-phrases and discover the algorithm’s endless artistic potential. -Not hoping to reach singularity, but simply observing the organic behavior of the computer through collaboration with it.